Saturday, April 19, 2008

The latest film by one of my favorite directors Errol Morris is called Standard Operating Procedure. The film which Morris describes as a "non-fiction horror movie", "examines the incidents of abuse and torture of suspected terrorists at the hands of U.S. forces at the Abu Ghraib prison." .

Morris's films, are always beautifully shot, art directed and designed. Judging from the trailer this is exceptionally so.

The site for Standard Operating Procedure is great, well designed with a simple and interesting interface. Odd however, is that I don't see a trailer for the film on the site.

I have other issues with the marketing of the film as well. I learned of the film when I saw posters for it on the streets of Manhattan. It doesn't read as a film poster necessarily, it could just as easily be a poster for a new camera model. The film is about all of the amazing (now iconic) images that broke the Abu Ghraib prison story. Why not show one of those?

I thought the film was called "Weapons of Mass Distortion", that being the most prominent headline on the poster. Googling "Weapons of Mass Distortion" didn't help me find the site for the film. Neither did typing in the actual name of the film "Standard Operating Procedure". You Don't see a link for Errol Morris's site until 3 pages in on Google. I don't know when or if the link to the site appears, I didn't bother going past 3 pages and found the link to it on the director's web site.

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